AT&T

The FCC just approved AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV.
From today’s FCC statement:
“The Commission’s decision is based on a careful, thorough review of the record, which includes extensive economic analysis and documentary data from the applicants, as well as comments from interested parties. Based on this review, the Commission… Read More

AT&T reported its second-quarter financial performance following the bell, including revenue of $33.02 billion and earnings per share of $0.69. The street had expected the company to earn $0.63 per share on revenue of $33.06 billion.
Down in regular trading, AT&T is up 1 percent after-hours after its earnings announcement. Read More

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday that it plans to fine AT&T, the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier by subscribers, $100 million for misleading consumers about its unlimited mobile data plans.
The FCC charges that AT&T throttled data plans for subscribers grandfathered into its unlimited data plans and “failed to adequately… Read More

As expected, Google today announced the developer preview release of the next version of Android at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. With Android M (which will get its full name once it’s released to users), Google focuses mostly on fit and finish, but the company also added a number of new features to its mobile operating system.
It’s no surprise that Android M… Read More

Hulu and AT&T announced an expanded deal today designed to bring the video streaming service to AT&T’s customers on both mobile devices and on the web. Starting later this year, customers will be able to access Hulu shows through an AT&T app on their mobile phones, as well as through an AT&T website for Internet viewing, the companies said. The two are also exploring… Read More

You’re a business that wants to create a mobile app, but faster than it would take a designer to build something bespoke. UK-based startup Fliplet says it has come up with a simple way to do this which is mainly used by companies to produce internal business apps, such as to support sales, reporting, training, marketing, stuff like that. Existing customers include Marriott, Mars, Xerox… Read More

It’s easy to focus on big financial penalties. All of us intuitively feel the pain of writing the FCC a check for $25 million. But if you’re focusing on the monetary pay out in the FCC’s consent agreement with AT&T for a data privacy lapse, you’re missing the real story.
First, you need to be paying more attention to the agency that’s doing the fining here… Read More

Apple’s stock will be listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) beginning this month, bumping U.S. carrier AT&T from the list, reports the WSJ. The move has been discussed and anticipated for a while now, and results from a trend begun with the addition of other tech giants including Microsoft and Intel back at the turn of the millennium.
Apple will join the DJIA, also known… Read More

Deezer, the music streaming service based in France that competes with Spotify, is making another move to expand its customer base in the U.S.: it has acquired the assets of Muve music from Cricket, the wireless carrier acquired by AT&T in 2014 for $1.2 billion, and it will now partner with AT&T to sell Deezer music services to Cricket subscribers.
Terms of the deal are not being… Read More

Latest Crunch Report

AT&T announced earlier this week that it would “pause” the rollout of fiber Internet connections to dozens of cities, due to uncertainty in the market caused by potentially stiff net neutrality rules that may be put into place. The president recently caused a ruckus in the debate by calling for reclassification of broadband under Title II. Read More

Earlier today, President Obama proposed a net neutrality plan that called for reclassification of broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. The FCC quickly responded, saying, in effect, that it wasn’t quite as simple as the president seemed to intimate, and that it needed more time to work on the matter. Read More

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing AT&T for having “misled” millions of customers who purchase “unlimited” data plans for their phones, only to have the carrier later drastically reduce the amount of information they could access.
According to the FTC’s complaint, AT&T throttled millions of customers tens of millions of times, sometimes after… Read More

The idea behind the Apple SIM that comes in the new iPads is most excellent: one SIM, many carriers. Whenever you want to switch carriers, you’d just pop into settings and pick the new one. If you want to bring your own SIM, you can — but otherwise, everything happens through software. No swapping SIMs, no ordering new SIMs, no hassle. Read More

The FCC slapped AT&T with the largest “enforcement action” in its history, the agency announced today. The total bill, $105 million, will include $80 million in payments to scammed AT&T customers, $20 million to “state governments participating in the settlement,” with the last $5 million going to the FCC itself, it said today in a statement. Read More

The iPhone 6 supports WiFi calling. But does your carrier support it?
If you’re in the U.S., the answer to that is probably “not yet”. But fear not, AT&T customers! You’ll be getting in on the WiFi fun too… eventually. Read More

Netflix has signed a peering agreement with AT&T that will see the video streaming service pay the ISP for direct connection to its network.
Previously, Netflix signed similar agreements with Comcast and Verizon.
Interconnection agreements do not deal with how content moves across the network of an ISP, but instead focus on how it gets onto the network. In short, Netflix customers… Read More

Earlier today Rep. Doris Matsui called for a Congressional hearing on the proposed deals between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and AT&T and DirecTV. The massive deals would further consolidate the pay-TV and broadband industries. The proposed transactions are quite controversial. The arguments are the usual fare: Allowing the firms to combine will allow for efficiencies to be exploited… Read More

When I fly, I am afforded a few brief hours of sublime luxury when I’m not connected to the Internet – I live in Canada, you see, where in-flight Wi-Fi between our country and the U.S. still isn’t all that normal. But one day soon, you won’t be able to escape the web, even at 30,000 feet, no matter where you’re flying from or to, and AT&T’s newly… Read More

AT&T: The rules proposed for the 2015 spectrum auction are crap, and we may not take part!
FCC: Yeah, sure, right, whatever, no.
AT&T: Fine, haha, we were just kidding.
Or, to be more precise:
Our desire to participate in this auction and our hope for a successful auction is unchanged. We believe that all stakeholders will be able to work together to achieve a successful… Read More

There’s a new $500 million pool of potential capital floating around earmarked for the creation of over-the-top video services, thanks to AT&T and Chernin Group, who have collaborated on the new venture (via GigaOM). The team-up aims to pool resources from the two companies to “acquire, invest in and launch” OTT video services, including subscription VOD businesses… Read More